Success in Unova?
by Ash-GreninjaXD
Summary: Ever wished Ash's Unova Region journey had been better? I'm going to do my best do improve the journey and create a better Unova Ash and a better story. Also, parts of previous series will be brought in as well. There could be a bit of Mega Evolution, but there will be no romance. Might not have same team. Disclaimer: Pokemon rights belong to Game Freak. I don't own anything.
1. Chapter 1

15 year old Ash Ketchum was preparing for his journey to Unova. His mom gave him a new outfit, Pikachu was coming with him, and he was full of energy. He had finally made it past the quarterfinals, and only lost to a trainer with (at least) 2 legendary pokemon, who eventually became the winner. And now he was going all the way!

He stepped outside, drew in the fresh air. The morning sun was still rising. In true Ash Ketchum style, he had woken up at 7:00 am in the morning (the one day he doesn't oversleep are the days he starts a new journey). Still, he had resolved to take things a little more slowly. In the hoenn and sinnoh leagues, he had lost in the competition because he was too reckless and liked a head on collision.

His pokemon always have heart, but even they sometimes do not come out on top. A powerful pokemon, Pikachu had nevertheless failed to match meowth when both hit each other with iron tails, and Ash had multiple times unsuccessfully clashed head on with Latios, failing miserably each time. This time, he would think things out more. Part of becoming a pokemon master is learning to adapt, and he had to learn how to right differently.

He took a moment to survey the morning sky. The sun was starting to bring some warmth in this cold March morning. The sun rose, bringing the first few glimmers of its usual strength but wasn't quite enough to dispel the cold. Ash continued to watch in awe until a strange noise interrupted him. He and Pikachu laughed, embarrassed, as both their stomachs grumbled at the same time. Some things never change.

He thought the day through: He would visit Professor Oak and his pokemon one last time, of course have breakfastsay good bye to his mom, and then leave for the Unova region. He couldn't wait! There were so many new pokemon waiting for him! He realized that he had moved to the lake beside Professor Oak's ranch, letting the breeze billow his shirt and blowing pikachu's ears back.

He smiled, a little sad, though. This would be the last time he would see his pokemon for about a year. He had grown happy spending more time with them, something having originated from his mom having begged him to stay for at least two weeks, since that was the time it took until his fifteenth birthday came around. He hadn't argued, knowing that his mom wanted him to be home for a while longer than normal, and it would also benefit his pokemon. He had really had fun with them, playing with them, learning Gible's favorite hobby was biting one of the Tauros in the head and riding around on it and how Bulbasaur clearly showed it was fed up with Heracross' antics and would actually consider evolving to make stun spore come out its' previously closed bulb.

Yes, it really seemed to him that he could better understand his pokemon and actually felt he knew what they were saying. How Bulbasaur's right leg twitched when it was nervous, when Bayleef looks a certain way into the distance when it was pondering something, the tone of Noctowl's hoots indicating different emotions and ideas. They all seemed to convey messages to Ash he could better understand now that he sat down with them more and didn't focus on training them.

He realized he was closer than ever before with his pokemon, and reflected on his delight that, despite not bringing any pokemon other than Pikachu along with him to his journies, he still had such incredible bonds with him. He turned around and walked towards Professor oak's front door. It was time to go again, as his birthday had passed yesterday. He strode along, remorseful but with purpose, sure of his decision. He dismissed the small twinge in his stomach as being hungry. Nothing more. Nothing else.

"Hello, Professor Oak!" Ash yelled, knocking on the door. The famous professor opened the door, wincing slightly from Ash's yelling. "No need to yell, Ash! I'm right here. I was about to feed the pokemon." "Sorry, Professor Oak!" Ash laughed, amused by the professor's antics. The elderly man was well known even outside of Pallet Town and far into other regions, and even used to be a legendary champion until the professor's strongest pokemon, his Dragonite, nicknamed Rampage, met it's match in Lance's Dragonite and Lance was victorious. Still, he could be kind of silly sometimes, especially when Muk was trying to be a little too affectionate and Professor Oak was trying to talk him out of it. "Muk! Don't do it! I'll give you extra poke food… wah!"

But still, the Professor was still Ash's role model- aside Lance, of course- and although meeting Professor Oak wasn't as awe-inspiring to him as others outside of Pallet Town, he always felt warm when he was around the professor. "So, Ash, are you going to stand around all day or do you want to tell me what you want?" "I want to see my pokemon again," The teen replied. "Oho!" Professor Oak exclaimed. "You are finally setting off on your journey to Unova?!" Ash sweat dropped. He was in full uniform, Pikachu was on his shoulder, cheeks sparking in excitement, and his mom had paraded the fact that he was going today around for a while, because she was, and I quote, 'so proud to have such an adventurous and talented son who can bring down a Darkrai and Latios and more importantly even remembers to change his underwear'! And Professor oak hadn't realized.

He joked: "What made it so obvious? The outfit or my mom?" "The fact that you're up so early," Professor Oak countered. Ash scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. The wily old man had him there. "Well, yeah, and I do want to say goodbye to them all before I leave." "Have you ever considered bringing them along with you again?" Professor Oak asked him. Ash sighed. Professor Oak asked him that before every single journey. "Yes, I have, but I was really disappointed with my start in the Indigo League and I want to prove that I'm strong without over leveled pokemon. When I started Johto, Charizard wrecked every single team, and during the Battle Frontier, Sceptile just was too good. I want to prove that I'm not just my strong pokemon, but also a strong trainer with new pokemon." "But you took down 2 legendary pokemon in the sinnoh league!" Ash considered that, before replying: Yes, but I only used Gible and Pikachu from my orginal Sinnoh team, and Pikachu and Sceptile, two of my strongest pokemon, were the ones who defeated the legendary pokemon!" Professor Oak sighed and looked away, giving up. He understood that Gary hadn't used many variations of his incredible amount of pokemon, as his grandson was usually a little stuck up and wasn't always as friendly as Ash. Still, Ash was a kind, compassionate trainer and Professor Oak could hardly believe he was leaving so many of his close friends behind. "All right then, come through," the professor relented. Ash squeezed through the frame of the door. That subject was still a little raw for them both, leaving them both a little upset, but the professor kept trying. He knew it would be good for Ash and his pokemon if they would interact more during his travels as well.

Pikachu bounded off Ash's shoulder, crying out happily and rushing forward to meet totodile, who happily jumped around it, then Bayleef, who he had now resolved his differences with and gave a high five from tail to leaf, then gave Donphan a little shock, which didn't hurt at all, their normal greeting. Then Bayleef saw Ash, and together with Bulbasaur, Noctowl and Crophish bundled right into him. The rest of his pokemon joined, and Ash and Pikachu spent a full hour playing with the whole bunch. In the end, though, Professor Oak told him that his mom was looking for him and that he would have to go. He got up, dusting himself off and looked into all his pokemon's sad eyes.

"Guys," he began and then chuckled a little when Bayleef snorted, offended. "I'm leaving today." The group began to bay mournfully, all knowing what that meant, all of them tugging at Ash's shirt and pant legs, hoping to stop him from going and stay with them. Ash began to say something, then choked, and continued, slightly strained but with a clear voice: "Everybody, I need to go." While the pokemon wanted him to stay, they were also loyal to him and always listened to what he said, and so obeyed him. Bayleef, though, didn't seem to care, snuggling against Ash, crying and not holding back. "Bayleef…" Ash said, his voice breaking. He looked up, surveying the pokemon he was leaving behind. "Sceptile, Swellow, Infernape, Torterra, everybody…" He let out a small sob. "I'm sorry." And with that, he gently pried Bayleef off him and headed towards the gate. These goodbyes usually weren't this emotional. Sure, everyone would always be sad, but now it was even worse than usual. Ash's cap created a shadow that hid his face, and Pikachu looked back. Ash reached the gate, opened it, went through, and slammed it shut. It closed with a resounding, and final, bang. And with that, the gate on Ash bringing his pokemon with him was closed. But the twinge in his stomach reappeared. "I haven't had breakfast, I haven't had breakfast," the teen repeated to himself. "That's the only reason." If only it were so.

The attention of every pokemon had been drawn to Ash leaving and how every one of Ash's pokemon was extremely sad. That's why no one saw that, from the bushes in Professor Oak's backyard, eyes peeked out. "The brat boy and his Pikachu are gone," a male voice whispered. "The pokemon are distracted," A female voice chimed in. "Then we move," a slightly different voice said. Meowth stepped forward. "Now." He smiled ominously. "The old man has powerful pokemon, but we've got our own ace in the hole." In Team Rocket's bag, on James' back, a black stone lay. And for a second, it glimmered. Something sparked to life. And then that, glimmer was gone.


	2. Team Rocket Attacks

Ash walked back towards his house, face downcast. The birds were still chirping and the sun was now shining brightly, warm yet also with a fresh breeze, arguably the perfect temperature, yet Ash couldn't get himself to concentrate on it. He still couldn't get over his pokemon's reactions. Usually, he'd stay a couple of days, and then leave on another journey. Sometimes he would play with them a little, but it wasn't as often as now. This hadn't been as tearful the previous times. 'Snap out of it!' he thought to himself. 'A future pokemon master doesn't get sad like that!' The worry lines receded from his face and his typical smile appeared on his face. "All right, Pikachu! Let's head home!" Pikachu, shocked by this turnaround in moods, managed a half smile before licking Ash's cheek. "Hey, stop that!" Ash yelled, laughing. "Cut it out!"

Then suddenly, the ground shook as a large explosion sounded out, Ash and Pikachu fighting to keep their balance. They looked for the cause of that and found the resultant smoke. Right in Professor Oak's backyard. Ash hesitated for just a moment before he took off, Pikachu jumping off his shoulders to race ahead of him.

"That blasted assistant of Professor Oak! His Venonat really does hear too well!" James yelled in frustration. The team had for been able to sneak in and out while grabbing some fo Professor Oak's stuff, but due to Tracey's Venonat, all the pokemon were made aware of Team Rocket's appearance, and had prepared a blast that usually sent Team rocket 'blasting off again'. This time, though, Team Rocket's pokemon managed to counter it, and now Team Rocket were facing hordes of pokemon, all dutifully lined up. "Less talking and more battling." Jessie replied coolly and told her Seviper to use poison sting. The front line pokemon dodged, but the ones behind the front line were hit full on.

Professor Oak came running out of the building. "What's going on here?" he demanded, before he saw the troublemaking trio and their pokemon. "You! Ash told me all about you!" Jessie snickered. "Oho! The brat boy told you about us! How flattering! Sadly, though, this has to be the end of the chitchat. We really must be going. Oh, and thanks for the trinkets we were allowed to take." And with that, they pulled their jet packs and prepared for take off. Professor Oak was having none of this, though, and before the trio could take off, brought out an ultra ball. "Oh no you don't! Rampage, I choose you!" The legendary Dragonite came out, roaring into the morning sky. "Use thunderbolt!" Rampage charged the electricity gathering around it's horns, and then guided it towards Team Rocket. The three, though, just smirked. "James, you're up." Meowth said. "Roger that," the blue haired villain replied and opened his backpack. He pulled out the stone and held it in the direction. Professor Oak's eyes widened in surprise as he instantly recognized the stone and yelled: "Rampage, don't! Stop that Thunderbolt!" But it was already too late.

The bolt hit the stone head on, and as the pokemon and the professor watched in awe, James set the stone down and brought a machine, attaching it to the rock. "What does that machine do?" The professor asked, panting with fear he hadn't felt in a long while. It couldn't be, could it? Not such a powerful pkemon… Meowth announced: "Now, Oakie, be prepared for a little fun fact. This black rock here and this machine here equal a pokemon. Get ready for some excitement! And the best part? We can control it." "You really have to work on that delivery, Meowth." James whispered. "Stop it, you two!" Jessie exclaimed and her eyes glinted. "It's happening." She removed the machine' hold on the rock. And with that, the black rock started flashing.

First the flashes of white were subtle, and then they started growing stronger and stronger, until the pulses could even be _heard_. Just like a heartbeat. Then the rock started to change shape. It grew legs, arms, a terrifying jaw, and bloodshot eyes, growing over 10 meters tall. It became black again. The black legendary pokemon of Unova. "Zekrom." Professor Oak breathed. "You know, Professsor," Meowth caught Professor Oak's attention, "This machine is powered by electricity. Also, if Zekrom's stone gets hit with electricity, its' tail is powered up again when revived and it becomes very… let's say motivated. For a little violence. And since we control it, it wants to be violent for **us**. Of course, we could have provided that electricity ourselves, with ten pokemon working at once. But our boss felt it was fitting for you to start our conquest of this world. Go on, Zekrom. Show these would-be heroes a little sign of your power." The legendary dragon roared and, out of nowhere, black clouds appeared in the sky. It started to rain. The professor gritted his teeth. "You won't get away with this. Rampage, dragon pulse!" The Dragonite powered an immense beam of draconic energy straight at the legendary beast.

The Team Rocket trio just smirked, though. An explosion followed the the beam's impact on Zekrom. When the smoke cleared, though, Zekrom was still standing strong. Without a scratch. "What?" Professor Oak gasped. "That's not possible!" After it evolved, Rampage had never lost a battle aside from against Lance's Dragonite, which made it very possibly the second strongest Dragonite in Kanto. And Dragonite were a very powerful species, not to mention that Rampage had used one of its' strongest dragon type moves. Meowth smirked. "Zekrom is a legendary pokemon, professor. What did you expect?"

Meanwhile, Ash had managed to reach Professor Oak's lab, where all the people in Pallet Town were milling around, worried about what was happening but afraid to go and actually find out. Ash wasn't, though, and he sprinted through the crowd and was about to reach the gate when a hand pulled at his shirt. Ash turned around. His mom had caught him. "Ash, don't do it! You'll get hurt! It's not safe!" "I don't care if it's safe, mom," Ash replied. I have to see what's going on! If Professor Oak is in trouble, I've got to help!" "No, Ash, anybody but you!" Ash turned to face his mom. "Mom, this is no longer about me. If I don't do it, then someone else will have to risk it for me. But I'm the most prepared. Everybody here, they're afraid because of what is going on, and they are right to be. They may not have the pokemon to keep them safe so that they can help, but I do. With Gary still in Sinnoh, I'm the only experienced pokemon trainer here. I'm not going in there worrying just about me, or Professor Oak, but also these people here… and you. Everybody here is my family, all the kids grew up together, and all the adults have become friends. This is the reason I'm going in there. For all of you. To protect you, the people of Pallet Town." Cheers met Ash's final sentence, and his mom reluctantly let go, only to be surprised as Ash stepped in close hugged her tight. "Mom, I'll come back. I promise." Delia Ketchum just nodded and wiped her eyes. Ash released her and then vanished through the gate, slamming the door shut. If only the teen knew that he couldn't keep that promise.

Professor Oak wasn't holding out too well against Zekrom. Rampage tried another Hyper Beam, but Zekrom just easily countered it with Thunderbolt, overpowering the Hyper Beam and knocking Rampage out of the sky, its' impact on the ground blowing pokemon and the professor away. The fierce pokemon tried to get up again, but failed. It was too weak after constant attacks. The pokemon prepared a joint-attack, but Zekrom simply took it without getting harmed and then replied with another Thunderbolt, which exploded in the ground in front of the pokemon and sent them flying away. "No!" Professor Oak screamed, crouching near his fallen friend's side.

"Team Meowth come in!" a voice suddenly was heard over the trio's COM link." "Executive Proton!" the three suddenly snapped to attention. "Yes," the cold voice replied. "How is your mission going?" "We got the items, and Zekrom, Project Alpha, has been revived. However, we have still to eliminate Professor Oak." "No matter," Proton interrupted. "We have decided the professor still has a part to play in the grand finale. Go now and bring back the contents. "Roger that." The trio said as they activated their jet packs, commanded Zekrom to halt its' attacks and the four flew off.

Ash and Pikachu appeared at the horizon and soon appeared at the professor's side. "Are you all right, Professor?" The elderly man replied: "Yes, Ash, but they go away. They used me to free Zekrom. I'm the reason they can now complete their goal- they have their frontline pokemon for their pokemon army. I failed." "What are you talking about, Professor?" "That's right, you don't know… Team Rocket, the trio that followed you through your journeys, now somehow created a machine that can control Zekrom. Zekrom is a legendary pokemon from Unova that can revert into a stone to sleep in peace until it awakes due to a call of great passion… or in this case, a simple machine. It's an electric and dragon type, the only pokemon that knows the move Bolt Strike, and one of the three legendary dragons of the Unova region… Reshiram and Kyurem being the others. It's a legendary pokemon. We have no chance."

Ash shook his head and clenched his fist angrily. "I don't care about the pokemon, or how powerful it is. I was talking about how you just gave up. You can never lose hope; never give up till the end!" "I am impressed by your spirit and determination, Ash, but this is a legendary pokemon. It easily overpowered Rampage and took it's attacks like it were nothing; it didn't have a chance." Ash gasped slightly at this. Rampage taken down so easily? This legendary pokemon had to be really powerful. Of course, it wouldn't be taken down by just determination, and he now realized he had to add preparation to his game… Then an idea occurred to him. Professor Oak's security cameras! Assuming they weren't destroyed during the battle, they would have filmed the pokemon as well. He hadn't seen the legendary dragon actually take down Rampage, or seen it in action, but the cameras would help him correct that and so they could study the pokemon's strengths and weaknesses as well. With Professor Oak and his scientific knowledge helping him, he could get the material to beat the pokemon and take Team Rocket down!

He adjusted his cap, regained his confident smile that stayed with him no matter how tough the times, and then spoke. "As I said, hope is important. Hope is what we have left to try and defeat that legendary pokemon. Hope is what the people outside of this ranch have, for us to succeed and make the world a safer place for them. Hope is what the whole world has that Team Rocket will be stopped, and it will happen! We always lose everything when we lose hope; but if we all believe in each other," he gestured to all the pokemon starting to flock around them again. "We can succeed." Professor Oak's gaze still was downcast and he heaved a great sigh. "But you saw how powerful that pokemon was! It took down Rampage without a second thought!"

Ash was stunned. His hero, his idol, the person he had worshipped since he was old enough to understand what a pokemon was, the former Champion of Kanto, he was just giving up. Ash wouldn't take that sitting down. "That's not the Professor Oak I know! That's not the Champion Oak I know. That is a person who is willing to sit down and do nothing while Team Rocket take down Pallet town, the Kanto region and the whole world- and that's not you. Besides, we can assess its' weaknesses and strengths- we can find what makes it so strong by using your security cameras. There has to be a way to beat Zekrom! And we're going to find it! Just believe in it."

Professor Oak looked at Ash with wide eyes, until he heard a grunt behind him. He turned around to see Rampage slowly pushing itself up. "No, Rampage, you have to rest!" Rampage shook his head. He wanted to fight. He wanted revenge. And he wasn't going to let anything stop him. The professor looked at him, then looked at all the determined pokemon screeching their approval of Ash's speech, and looked at Ash himself, wearing his own fierce expression. Some fire returned to Professor Oak's eyes. "I suppose," he said slowly, "We could go for round two. Studying the tape from the security cameras seems like a good idea. You're getting smarter, Ash. Well, what are we aiting for? Let's get to work!" Everyone, pokemon, Ash, and Rampage, cheered. The real professor Oak was back. Ash looked at the sky. "We'll track you down, then we'll find and beat you, Zekrom. Just you wait and see."

Jessie, James and Meowth landed in front of the Team Rocket Headquarters, Zekrom right behind them. Zekrom hesitated slightly, unsure why it was here. Why was it following these humans? Meowth noticed its' confusion and told Jessie: "The machines' effect is wearing off. Better use the fail safe now before we plan to have a lot of legendary trouble in the next couple of minutes." Jessie pulled out a Master Ball and tapped Zekrom with it. "Never thought I'd be using one of these," she murmured, smug as she watched the Master Ball ding. Zekrom was now trapped in the Master Ball.

They walked into the building and straight up to Giovanni's door. James knocked twice, hollow, but powerful sounds that echoed through the corridors, then opened the door and went in without Giovanni letting them in. They had authority now. Giovanni looked up from stroking his Persian. A glint appeared in his eyes. "You didn't wait for me to call you in. No one but the highest ranked officials do that." Jessie, James and Meowth kept calm and composed, knowing that he wasn't upset. So it proved to be. "I like generals with guts. You're a lot better now than a few years ago. Now, did you complete the mission?"

"Yes," Meowth spoke calmly. "We got the stones and revived Zekrom. He started to snap out of the machine's control when we came back, but we put him in the master ball." "Fascinating. That machine was supposed to be able to keep an electric pokemon enslaved for months. And yet Zekrom was already almost free after under an hour. A legendary pokemon's power truly is remarkable. But that master ball's built-in versions of the machine will continue to empower our mind-control machine over it and it will be completely under our control very soon. Good work." "Yessir, Boss." The trio prepared to leave, but a scientist came barging in: "Giovanni, sir, important news!" Giovanni's eyes narrowed. The successful Team Rocket trio barging in presented no problem, but a lowly scientist? The foolish man would have to hope that Giovanni would be VERY kind to him when he left. But that depended on the news.

"What news have you brought?" "We have found out who has the papers necessary to find the legendary dragon Reshiram. sir," "Interesting," Giovanni replied, feeling that the scientist now had a better chance of escaping punishment. "And who is this researcher?" "He is quite well known, Sir Giovanni. His name is Professor Oak." "Professor Oak?" Giovanni repeated, his eyebrows twitching. "My good fellow Team Rocket member, we just had a mission assigned to steal from the same professor. Why couldn't you have told me this sooner?" "Um… we just found out about it, Giovanni, sir!" The scientist stuttered. He knew making Giovanni angry wasn't the best idea, but Giovanni seemed **very** angry right now. Giovanni walked up to the man and smiled down at him. "I think we need to be cleared up about a few Team Rocket rules. "Just come into this room here and we can discuss it." He gestured to a door on his left. The scientist, unsure of what to expect, followed him, knees shaking. He entered the room, and looked at Giovanni standing just outside the room. "Now, Persian, enjoy yourself out there," the Team Rocket leader said calmly, let the cat slink around him and then closed the door. "What… no! No! NO! HELP! HELP… AGH!" The scientist screamed once, then was silent. Giovanni smirked at the door, which opened to Persian walking through with blood on his claws, and then turned to the trio still waiting patiently in his room.

"It seems you will need to take a second trip to Professor Oak's ranch. I trust you will succeed again?" "Of course, boss," The trio said in unison. "We will always succeed. And crush those who are in the way. "Good," the evil team Rocket leader said. "You can leave now." As they left, Giovanni called into the hallway. "Oh, and call the clean up crew. We can't afford to have… trash lying around." The trio nodded silently. They walked down the hallway, left the building, and called out Zekrom. "We have work to do," James said. And with that, they left for Professor Oak's ranch.


	3. Glimpse into Professor Oak's Past

It had been a few hard, long hours after Zekrom and Team Rocket had left. After managing to reassure the Pallet Town citizens that everything will be alright and that the danger was over, eventually managing to disperse them, Professor Oak check on the injured pokemon. Meanwhile, Ash walked over to his pokemon to see if they were all right. Luckily, none of them were dead, yet the smaller pokemon had bruises from being picked up by the wind, Staraptor had been slammed into a tree hard, and Sceptile, in a brave and heroic move to save some wild pokemon, had taken the full brunt of a lightning bolt.

If it weren't a pokemon and not a grass type, being able to resist electricity, it would have been without a doubt dead. Ash and Professor Oak wouldn't be able to take care of all the injured pokemon, so Ash ordered the fit flying types to carry the smaller pokemon ahead to the Viridian pokemon center and bring a note from Professor Oak.

Since the professor's jeep had been destroyed during the fight, though, and there weren't any other vehicles in the town, they couldn't do the same for the big pokemon. Staraptor and Sceptile made it due to having a poke ball, and other injured pokemon had also had been caught, therefore having their own poke ball, so they were also getting treatment, yet so many pokemon were also wild or just liked to hang out at Professor Oak's lab, so it was impossible to transport them to the pokemon center.

While spare poke balls could have been used, the room with the poke balls was right next to the fields of the ranch, so the storm had destroyed them. The owned pokemon sitting in poke balls inside Professor Oak's storage room had been lucky, having beenfar away enough from the storm to avoid getting affected. Still, this left Ash and Professor Oak with the problem of what to do with the wild pokemon. They were going to have to heal in Professor Oak's lab first. The two males had healed them to the best of their abilities, yet they knew it wasn't good enough. Still, it was the best they could do for the moment.

Professor Oak detached the cameras, entering a passcode before removing them as to not set off an alarm that was built in and sighing in relief at the cameras being mostly unharmed, Ash took the moment to survey the area.

The peaceful, rippling grass that had always been a joy sit down on and just relax while also providing nourishment and another dimension of nature' beauty was now torn apart, Diglett families having their homes blown away, some seriously injured, others even dead, by the commotion and whole chunks of the ground were lying around.

The pokemon battling against Zekrom had stood up as well as they could against the flying debris, yet a lot of them sported bruises and injuries that would have a normal human being screaming in pain for a whole four minutes, although the pokemon themselves were amazingly going on without a complaint, seeing to that the wild pokemon living around the edges of the ranch and even in the lake were OK. The fence had been almost completely destroyed and thrown every which way, one pokemon even finding a piece a whole mile away from the ranch while patrolling the edges of the ranch. And Professor Oaks' own laboratory hadn't been mentioned yet.

The whole side facing the ranch had been ripped down, and only that the cameras were hidden underground where Zekrom hadn't reached had saved the ones that were still intact. Stone was lying around, scattered everywhere. To sum it up, the whole place was a mess, but no wonder.

The sheer force of Zekroms' blasts of lightning and wind, incredibly powerful, would arguably have killed all the nearby pokemon had it not been rusty from being asleep, yet it had uprooted many trees and left the place in chaos. Some bird pokemon, such as pidgeys and spearow, having built their nests on those uprooted trees, had managed to escape with their nest and eggs in tact, yet… most weren't so lucky. Some of the bird pokemon had been sitting on their nests when Zekrom arrived and had been crushed by the trees falling onto the ground, and a lot the nests now lay, broken, with shattered eggs losing the potential of new life and cute, blissful babies.

The happiness their parents, possibly dead as well, would have had was erased by one single event, one evil, foul deed that could and would never be forgiven. Ash took of his hat and mourned as well as all the surrounding pokemon to honor the lives of the Pirdgeys, Spearow, Diglett and more Team Rocket and their goal for world domination took. Members of families that had a few or all its' other members killed now sat crying over the dead, still bodies of their deceased loved ones. Ash's grip on his hat tightened. This much suffering was caused just today!

If one mission from Team Rocket could end up with so much suffering, what would so many others provide? The ruthless organization and its' heartless members would not hesitate to put a bullet through a person, not caring about the loving family and happy life the human could lose, the fact that the family would eternally mourn for him and that the suffering would stay with them their whole lives, They didn't care bout the pokemon they controlled, killed experimented with or stuck in a cage. They just cared about their evil ways, and as Ash let the tears he had tried to stop flow from his eyes, and collapsed to his knees, he thought about what could have been. As he got up, he knew he couldn't let this go on.

The Team Rocktet members that had followed him around had never succeeded, always ended up being thwarted and the innocent victims enjoyed a happy ending. Therefore it was shocking for Ash to hear that it was the three apparently incompetent trio of James, Jessie and Meowth who had controlled Zygarde and easily completed their mission. Despite them always trying to take Pikachu away from him, he always believed the three had a speck of good in them, and how they really cared about their pokemon gave Ash hope they could become good people.

Yet now they had without a care in the world took control of a pokemon and its' life, used it as a puppet to destroy Professor Oak's lab peaceful lab, created all this destruction, risked and took so many innocent pokemon's lives, and now Ash realized there wasn't a way back for them. But if the members of Team Rocket who seemed to have a speck of good in them were now such horrible people and so ruthless, what would that say for the rest of Team Rocket's members? Ash knew he had to stop the misery Team Rocket caused all over the world. For all the potential victims.

"Professor Oak," Ash began. "We need to clean up first. We can't just leave these pokemon to fend for themselves. Zekrom can wait; we won't be finding it again anytime soon." Professor Oak looked up and with disoriented eyes seemed to notice the pokemon's troubles and the debris lying around for the first time. Ash sighed, confused. The professor was still acting strange.

Granted, he had been through a real ordeal, and had seen yet he had still seemed affected by the events of the day. Wiping his brow from the hot afternoon sun, and taking a moment of his own to further examine the damage Zekrom had done; he then turned away from the camera. "Yes," he said. "You are right, Ash. I'm terribly sorry. Of course you're right, Ash."

This was a strange response even coming from Professor Oak, and Ash began to wonder if something else was wrong aside from his trauma. Granted, it was a lot seeing one of his closest and strongest companions being taken down so easily in front of his eyes, but he had seemed to get over that before he was weighed down again by something else. Ash opened his mouth to ask him what was up, but then he heard a splash and then the sounds of a scuffle. He pushed Professor Oak's concerns to the back of his mind and investigated the noises. Ash ran over to the lake, Pikachu sprinting ahead of him.

The raven-haired boy made it to the top of the hill and saw a group of pokemon fighting. Some pokemon belonging to other trainers who stored their pokemon at Professor Oak's lab, a Golduck, a Bibarel, a Staravia and an Eevee were fighting over some fruit in the water. The fruit in the trees had been knocked down by Zekrom's thunderstorm, and so most of it had landed on the ground and now lay broken and spoiled on the ground. Still, a good amount of fruit had found its' way into the lake, where it didn't have a big enough impact to break, even if it did end up wet, as it was better than nothing, and so the pokemon who had found the fruit were fighting over it. It was pretty much the last undamaged fruit in the area, and the scrap for survival was on. At least, that's how the four pokemon saw it.

Staravia fluttered up to a standpoint above the water, then dived down to try and take the berries. Golduck, though, blasted water at it, which it dodged, but that movement carried it back and out of the reach of the berries. It ruffled its' feathers, obviously not very amused by the attempted water assault. While those two were distracted, the Eevee used swift to try and impale the berries. That would then bring the stars, and therefore also the berries, back to it. Bibarel was have none of that, though, using Tackle on the stars. Although the pointy projectiles hurt, its' thick fur and abundance of fat reduced the pain by a good bit.

Staravia then switched its' attention to Eevee. While it could keep its' eyes on the two water pokemon well, it would be a little harder to pay attention to them two and the Eevee on the land, so it went to eliminate the problem. Its' talons grasped out at Eevee as it plunged towards ground and shrieked an aggressive battle cry. The Eevee looked up at the scream and managed to evade the Starvia's grasp, and fired a shadow ball at it. It gaped, though, as it dissipated when reaching Staravia, having momentarily forgotten that it was a normal type as well as a flying type.

Staravia used the distraction to fire a gust at the Eevee, throwing it into the lake. When the Eevee got out, it shrieked at its' wet fur, futilely trying to lick the water off, not realizing that wouldn't work. When it realized its' fur wouldn't be drying any time soon, it got up slowly and cast a very, very angry glare at Staravia, making back away in fear. Then the Eevee pounced.

Meanwhile, the Bibarel and the Golduck were wading in the water, trying to get the better of the other, yet the battle dragged on. Ash watched on, aghast at the immature pokemons' quarrel, before snapping out of his shock and realizing he had to do something to stop these pokemon. "Hey, cut it out!" The boy yelled, sprinting over to Staravia and Eevee grappling on the ground. Eevee looked over at the Pokemon trainer and growled. What was it doing getting in its' way like this? "Please, Eevee, Staravia, you've got to listen to me! You have to stop! You're only hurting yourself!"

Eevee hesitated. The boy really did seem concerned about it. Just then, though, the Staravia took advantage of it being distracted and slashed it across its' cheek with its' talons. Eevee yelped in shock and pain, numbly fingering its' wound. Its' furious gaze settled on Ash. This puny boy had done this! It had distracted Eevee in order for Staravia to hit it. He was going to pay! With that, it lunged at Ash.

"Ah!" The boy yelled in fear as the Eevee launched a lightning quick offensive, so fast even Pikachu couldn't prevent it, and bit into Ash's arm. Ash yelled in pain as the Eevee writhed on his arm, trying to sink its' fangs deeper, the Starvia at this turn of events, having barely noticed Ash. But Pikachu was furious. He didn't usually get angry, but this Eevee was hurting his trainer, his best friend and loving mentor, and he was not going to let it do that unpunished.

With a growl he smashed right into the Eevee, knocking it clean off Ash's arm, although it cost Ash a good bit of his skin. Still, he was happy to have Eevee off him. Pikachu wasn't finished, though. Still furious beyond anything he's ever been before, he launched himself at Eevee and geared up its' Iron Tail attack. Eevee, though, skipped out of the way before trying a point-blank Shadow Ball attack. With its' tail still ironclad, though, Pikachu simply sliced through the Shadow Ball, creating an explosion that sent the Eevee flying. After that, he used Thunderbolt on it, and the Eevee hit the ground hard, it's fur still sparking from the powerful Thunderbolt.

Pikachu went to down the Eevee, yet Staravia, having up until this point just watched on in confusion, decided this Pikachu was also fighting for the berries and so had to be stopped. Therefore, he charged up a Wing attack and threw Pikachu off course with it. With Wing attack not being very effective, it was only for a very quick moment stunned, managed to recover quickly, twisted around in midair and unleashed a thunderbolt on the Staravia.

Caught by surprise, the bird pokemon was hit head on by the super effective attack. Pikachu, with all its' battle experience, was just too powerful for the two pokemon. Ash, stunned by Pikachu's complete switch in emotions, was about to call Pikachu to stop but then flashed back to how Eevee had torn into his arm, and how Staravia had caused it to happen in the first place, and smiled. They deserved this. "Go, Pikachu!" He yelled. "Thunderbolt them both!"

Pikachu charged up, then shot, but the two pokemon managed to dodge just in time. Instead, it headed to the Bibarel and Golduck. The two, caught by surprise by the electric attack coming their way, were electrocuted along with so many other pokemon in the lake as the electricity ran through them. "No," Ash yelled, horrified, his momentary rage forgotten. Pikachu also cried in shock, watching as the pokemon in the lake shook in pain and then became limp. They would be fine, of course, but it had hurt a lot.

Golduck wasn't happy with Pikachu's accidental sneak attack, though, and fired a surprise Water Gun at Pikachu. This attack caused it to be thrown back, thrown head over heels by the surprisingly strong water type move, which was supposed to be pretty weak. Golduck jumped out of the lake and attacked the mouse pokemon with a barrage of Scratch attacks. Pikachu, unwilling to fight after all the pain it had just caused, continually dodged, but eventually decided enough was enough and used Thunderbolt.

But nothing happened. Pikachu hesitated, shocked, as its' cheeks didn't spark; no electricity flowed through his cheek pouches and no electric attack resulting. Then Golduck hit it hard with its' attack. Pikachu cried out in pain, flung across the field. Golduck, far from satisfied, ran after it. Ash, yelling out Pikachu's name reacted instinctively and placed himself between Pikachu and the attack.

The Golduck hesitated, surprised by Ash running in front of it, but went through with the attack. Ash braced himself for the hit, but nothing came. Ash opened his eyes, startled, to see the Golduck flung away by a Psybeam, then laying limp on the ground, its' fight drained out of it.

But Staravia was getting back up again, and flapped its' wings in a Gust attack. Ash and Pikachu held their arms up as the wind drove them back. Pikachu, though, realized that electricity was returning to it's cheeks. "Pika!" It shouted. Ash grinned. You can use Thunderbolt again? All right then! Thunderbolt!" "Pikachuuuuuu!" Pikachu yelled as it fired its' attack at the Staravia.

The Thunderbolt, though, was intercepted by a Psybeam coming from behind Ash and Pikachu. Ash turned around to see Tracey standing behind him with Venonat in front of him after having used Psybeam on Golduck to stop it from hurting Ash and then to stop Pikachu's attack. Tracey ran up in front of Ash, back facing the raven-haired teenager.

"Staravia, stop!" Staravia hesitated. It remembered this boy. He had fed it good food. But why was he defending that hooligan? Still, he trusted that boy. It flew off. "Ash!" Tracey said breathlessly. "What is going on here?"

"Pikachu and I were trying to stop the pokemon from fighting!"

"Let me guess… Staravia was battling against Eevee."

"…And a Golduck was fighting Bibarel. How did you know?"

"Ash, those pokemon were just sparring! It's what they do! They are a little energetic and are definitely fierce, but in the end it's just about fun!"

"Oh," Ash said, starting to feel a little silly.

Tracey sighed. "Let's drop this. You mind going inside and telling me what is going on here?

Turn out Tracey had been at Misty, having a nice chat about things, as old friends would, although that was all he thought her of, even though he tried to hook her up with her Orange Islands crush from time to time. Anyways, he had forgotten that this had been supposed to be the day Ash left, but he still hadn't expected to come back to see the place in such shambles.

After Ash and Tracey sat down on the couch in Professor Oak's research lab, the professor himself taking over the duty of caring for the stricken pokemon, Ash explained the whole situation to Tracey, how Team Rocket had revived Zekrom, used it to destroy Professor Oak's lab and now they were obviously cleaning up the mess. Tracey listened without interrupting, but that was not the most important part for him.

Tracey leaned forward. "But what was that all about, Ash? You just went mental and ordered Pikachu to use Thunderbolt on those poor pokemon." "Yeah, but those pokemon were attacking me for no reason, and I had to defend myself."

"You know you have to be the mature one," Tracey bellowed. "You can't go attacking pokemon like that! That's not you! When I met you at the Orange Islands, you would never attack a pokemon without it being a pokemon battle.

Now you just went and tried to fry those pokemon. Look where it got you. You hurt all the pokemon in the lake, and almost got seriously injured by that Golduck because of your actions. Is that just a moment of anger or have you changed, Ash?"

"What?" Ash jerked his head up at that. He understood why Tracey had been ticked off, and he realized what he had done was wrong, but now Tracey was overdoing it. He wouldn't keep this up! It was one stupid moment! How could Tracey think he would constantly hurt pokemon like that?

He jumped up, startling Tracey, and clenched his fists. "You don't know anything about me! I traveled around a lot, all without you, and I learned so many things! How dare you say I would hurt more pokemon? You don't know me at all!"

Tracey stared at him, stunned. Ash was panting, having let out his anger at Tracey. Slowly, though, his fists unclenched, and he realized what he had done. He had just yelled at one of his best friends, a person who really cared about him, and an old buddy.

Tracey looked away, then started with a shaking voice: "You're right. I really don't know you anymore. I don't know the new, _improved_ Ash." Tracey spat the word 'improved' as if he was spitting a caterpie out of his mouth. He then turned around and stormed up the stairs. Before Ash could do anything, Tracey was gone. Ash stared at his hands, wondering what had just happened.

Why was he so unhappy? Why had he just yelled at Tracey for trying to help him? Was it because the hardship in parting with his pokemon? Was it that his childhood hero had been reduced to such levels of cowardice? Was it that Professor Oak's lab, such a constant in Ash's whole life and a familiar sight, had been destroyed? Was it all the deaths many innocent pokemon had suffered due to Zekrom's attack? Was it because his long awaited start to his journey in Unova had been delayed?

Right now, the only certain was that he had made a bad mistake and driven a very good friend away. Ash looked down at the floor, surprised to see that the ground looked blurry and realized that he was tearing up. Ash sat down, sighing, lowering his face into his palms, and shed some tears. The door to Professor Oak's study abruptly opened, though, and the professor stepped out.

"Ash! I heard some yelling. Are you alright?" He looked at the teen sitting on a couch in his still-intact research, tears sliding down his cheek. The professor had seen Ash walk into this room with Tracey and realized what had happened. "You had a fight with Tracey?" Ash nodded, still numb.

"Well, you can't be sorry for yourself right now! We have a threat we need to overcome! We both know releasing Zekrom from Team Rocket's control is top priority, and if you don't want things like the events today to happen again, you're going to join me in trying to achieve that goal!"

Ash looked up at Professor Oak. He made it sound so easy. Every day Ash woke up with renewed optimism, with hope, every day since the day he had started as a pokemon trainer, sure that life was good and everyone will be happy. But after the events that happened in just this one day, he was shell-shocked.

He had always believed that righteousness and good could and would overcome the odds to defy any evil. He had faced up to Team Rocket, Team Magma, Team Aqua and Team Galactic before, and had prevailed, and everything had a happy ending, yet all those pokemon out there, the ones that had lost their lives, or the ones that mourned them, had not received a happy ending.

If this sort of tragedy could happen so suddenly, with people out there OK with this destruction, was there really going to be any victory for justice? For peace?

No matter how many times any evil will be foiled, more evil, more criminals will arise. Casualties will be impossible to prevent, just as today. Will there really be a way to stop evil from triumphing when so much can go wrong? For every small victory, a big price is paid. Today's deaths showed that.

How was anyone supposed to fight that? Professor Oak was upset to still see resignation on Ash's face. He sighed. He would need to get something big off his shoulders. "Ash, you need to listen to me. What I'm about to tell you is big. I wanted to keep this a secret, to bury it, but the past always comes back. It always breaks out, no matter how deep it is buried."

Ash looked up slightly. This sounded interesting. "What is it?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. Professor Oak was encouraged by Ash's reaction, however slight, and began to talk.

"When I was little boy, going on a journey just like you, I met this other boy who was an awful lot like you. We became instant friends, we played together, we had fun, but more importantly, he showed me how love for pokemon is more powerful than anything anyone has ever seen.

He committed himself to a very suicidal task, trying to rescue a pokemon we had both become friends with, but because of his love for pokemon and for his friends, he succeeded. The strength and courage he showed and how it transmitted to his pokemon and the pokemon we had made friends with was incredible.

I had previously just taken notes on pokemon, trying to figure out tactically how to overcome an opponent, yet this person showed me how I neglected to see my pokemon more than just pawns in a battle. Me and my pokemon trusted each other, and battled well in sync, yet we weren't really friends. This boy showed me how I could bring a whole new dimension into my journey and form then on my journey really started to get going.

Later on, though, about 20 years ago, I fell in with these shady people, and they showed me fascinating ways of research that involved experimenting, very painful experimenting, on pokemon they had caught. I fought an inner struggle, wondering if the possible groundbreaking discoveries were worth risking the lives of the pokemon, yet then a man, a pokemon trainer, so similar to you, broke into the lab and freed the pokemon.

I brought out my pokemon and ordered them to attack, but the trainer's pokemon, a strong Hypno, easily evaded my pokemon and took them all down with Hypnosis. Landing Hypnosis is tough, as it requires the target to be very close, making the battle tough on my opponent, yet he never ordered an outright attack. Later I realized he had not wanted to hurt my pokemon.

I was astounded, backing up as the trainer advanced on me, yet he stopped in front of me and put his hand on my shoulder, asking me what I was doing there. I replied by saying that this is where I belong. What the pokemon trainer said there completely changed my life. I will forever remember his words as he talked me out of working with this group.

He glanced over at my Charmeleon and said: "I know there is a strong bond between you and your Charmeleon. I could see it in how he stood in front of you, to protect you. Yet starter pokemon are not just any other pokemon, not just another living being.

They are the beginning of a new chapter in life, a whole new phase, which begins with a trustworthy and loyal friend. Overcoming the early hardships transform trainer and starter pokemon into such close friends a part seems missing when the other is gone.

This is such an incredible bond. Never forget that. Now think of all the people who could have started with these pokemon. Or the families these pokemon have that are grieving, not expecting any sort of return.

Imagine the pain they will feel, the happiness they will never experience, the wind blowing around them, the trees rustling, the happy feeling of life itself. Imagine the happiness you felt when you interacted with your Charmeleon. That is the happiness you are taking away from these pokemon and their loved ones, past, present and future.

Is it really worth it to extinguish that for research? Think about that." I had been wondering the exact same thing, but then I realized all those times I had spent playing with my pokemon, exploring the lands with them, sharing some laughs, learning the ways of battling, sharing experiences, food and shelter with them… those would be the experiences those pokemon would lose.

As the man was describing what it was like to risk these pokemon's lives, the horrors that could come from it, I flashed back to how my own pokemon team was like my family. And I realized he wa right. Nobody deserved that. Those bonds every living being that cares about another shares, they were too precious to be severed.

I would probably be saving lives with being able to use this technology, by finding out what made pokemon tick and use their extraordinary power for us humans, by dissecting them. It wouldn't work with dead pokemon, as their energy would be gone, but pokemon's special energy lasts for a minute after they die. More than enough time for me.

But then, the lives I had to sacrifice, the pokemon which would die- how could I think I was saving lives if I was taking them? It made me see how I had simply wanted to drive my lust for research, and horrified that I had actually been willing to put my own selfish needs over the lives of the pokemon, I agreed with him.

The man smiled, but then turned around. Footsteps could be heard leading up to the lab. More people were coming. The pokemon trainer easily took their pokemon out, then took the trainers, called out a Charizard and put them on the pokemon's' back.

I was surprised. "Won't you try and talk them out of being with this group like you did to me?" The pokemon trainer turned to me, a grim look on his face. "I wish I could, but they are too evil to change." "Then why did you help me?" I replied.

A small movement of his lips indicated a hint of a smile. "I sensed that there was good in you." "How?" You have potential, Mr. Oak. You have a much purer and stronger aura than these guys." And with that, before I could say anything else, he flew off."

Ash sat there, stunned at what the professor had told him. He had been involved with a shady group? He had almost tortured innocent pokemon? Professor Oak looked at him, saw the disappointment in his eyes and sighed.

"I know, I'm a horrible person, but what I want to tell you is that if you give up, you lose everything. I felt the same way that you did once. It's obvious this struggle, the fight against evil seems impossible, that losses, pain and sadness seem to be the only outcome. But if you give up, more will be lost. When that man talked me out of dissecting the pokemon, he saved my life, and the lives of many more pokemon I could have hurt."

Professor Oak took a breath. "My life was made better by the man. Every loss is bitter, and seems like the end, but every victory is just as sweet as the losses are bitter. If we give up, we lose the chance to increase the victories. There are many moments of pain and sadness yet to come in both our lives, but if we keep working for the good side of life, we limit these moments and we make so many other lives better.

For all the lives that the pokemon lost today, so many more could have been taken. We have to live in hope. Because hope is what keeps us going, what keeps us happy, and in the fight against evil. And therefore we can never lose hope."

Ash looked down. "You're wrong, Professor Oak," he whispered. The professor felt like screaming. What could he do to cheer the teen up? Then Ash looked up with an honest expression on his face.

"Your life is worth a lot. You may have done some things wrong in the past, but you're my hero and so many others'. You have inspired so many people to love and take care of their pokemon. You have started so many people's' lives in giving them their first pokemon. You have been a pillar, a trustworthy person, for me and so many other people. And no matter what, that won't change."

Professor Oak smiled, fighting back the tears. He replied: "I had come in to ask you if we should watch the cameras' footage. Let's do that, huh?" Ash smiled. It was time to end the sappy speeches.

Ash and the professor looked at the lab's computer screen. They were watching Zekrom blast lightning, float up into the air on the winds and then blast a Dragon Pulse at Rampage, one of the many attacks the poor pokemon had to suffer through. Speaking of the pokemon, it had recovered as if there were no injuries at all.

Yes, Professor Oak had another trainer's Audino use Refresh on Rampage and heal a lot of its' wounds and restoring a good chunk of his energy, yet a normal pokemon would need to rest two hours to feel anywhere close to moving around. Rampage, though, just got up and started helping the pokemon.

In no time it was lifting trees with just one hand and easily moving around the pieces of the house torn down, which had to weight a ton. This was a testament to Rampage's will and heart as well as his strength, especially to have kept in shape despite being out of action for a long time. Yet this still showed how strong Zekrom was, as the legendary pokemon had so easily taken down Rampage. But that superiority was what Ash and Professor Oak were trying to fix.

They studied every movement of the wings, the way it called upon the air, the pattern of when it moved into the air, or when it made the winds unbearably horrible. But only when they examined how it sucked in its' electricity did they make a discovery.

"Look at that!' Professor Oak exclaimed.

"What is it?" Ash asked, confused. He had no idea what the professor was talking about.

"Did you see that light that shined brightly around Zekrom a split second after it absorbed electricity?"

Professor Oak wound the tape, back and showed Ash what he meant. After Zekrom absorbed a huge thunderbolt from the skies through it's generator, the tail, the air around Zekrom shimmered. Professor Oak went to work furiously, enhancing the picture and focusing on that light.

"I think the light looks very similar to the lightning it had just absorbed." Ash offered.

"Of course!' Professor Oak cried out.

"What is it?"

Professor Oak showed a close up of how the picture with the light shining. Now it was much more of a close up shot, and one could even see similar light all around the pokemon."When it absorbed the electricity, it flowed through it's tail and was spread out around Zekrom, forming some sort of electric barrier."

He then kept playing the tape and saw that when Rampage had launched a Dragon Pulse at the Electric/Dragon pokemon, the shield had stopped it!

"That why Rampage couldn't do any damage," the professor muttered. He was about to start playing the tape again when Ash yelled out: "Wait! Don't do that! I think I see something else." The professor obliged and then turned to Ash.

"What is it?" the elderly man asked.

"When Zekrom blocked Rampage's attack, I thought I saw the shield change." The professor was interested now. He played Rampage's attack again, and then he also saw how the shield seemed to contract to the Rampage's Dragon Pulse.

Professor Oak's eyes widened. "The electricity! Ash, what you saw was the majority of the electricity in Zekrom's shield moving to the position where the Dragon Pulse was going to strike, therefore weakening the rest of the shield. That could be huge!"

They watched attacks from other pokemon hit Zekrom, but there didn't seem to be a change in Zekrom's shield. "Maybe Rampage's move had so much power Zekrom needed more power to defend himself." "That's very possible," Professor Oak mumbled. "So if we can take out his shield, we have a definite advantage. But how?"

Ash and the professor thought hard. Ash thought back to all his battle experiences. What could help him? Then he flashed back to Pikachu's battles with Golduck and Staravia. Golduck had hit Pikachu with a Water gun. Pikachu had been wet. It had been wet. But when Staravia had used Gust on Pikachu, the wind had dried it. And Pikachu could use Thunderbolt again.

"Professor Oak, I might have an idea! What if we aimed a water attack at its' tail?"

"Why do you say that, Ash?"

"Once I had battled against two wild pokemon, a flying type and a water type," Ash said, making sure to keep Professor Oak in the dark on that it was two pokemon here at the lab.

"The water pokemon had hit Pikachu with a water type attack, making it unable to use Thunderbolt. We could do that with Zekrom to hit it's tail. Just make Dragonite launch a head on, very strong attack. Then its tail would be less protected, and a bunch of water types could hit its tail with water.

Some problems would be it drying up the water with the wind it pretty much controls, as the flying type I had battled against had accidentally dried Pikachu off, and that it probably not fall for the same trick twice, but if we work together as a team, efficient and use the chance we get to land some serious hits, it won't matter."

"Are you sure, Ash? Admittedly, Zekrom's tail is actually pretty similar to Pikachu's cheek pouches in that it creates and stores electricity for Pikachu and Zekrom to use, but Pikachu has been hit with several water type moves over the years. Why would that specific water type's move render Pikachu unable to use electricity?

Yes, it short-circuits the electricity for a few seconds, but after that, everything is back to normal. Why would it be different that time?" Ash flashed back to how Pikachu's cheeks had hit the dirt, hard, after it had taken Golduck's move.

"Pikachu had hit the dirt hard after the water type used its move. Maybe mud had been covering his cheek pouches, while dirty water had also been mixed in with the pure water, possibly resulting in Pikachu's inability to use electricity."

"That's possible," The professor acknowledged. "That means that we should hit Zekrom with both water type moves and ground type moves at the same time."

"That might work, Professor!" The two were celebrating finally having found something when Tracey opened the door to the room. "Professor Oak," he said, not looking at Ash at all.

"I just received a message from the Nurse Joy of Viridian City! She said she had seen a trio from Team Rocket flying into this general area using jet packs, and realized you had to be the person they had targeted. And judging by the patients she had received after their apparent last visit, she felt it was a good idea to warn you."

"What?!" Ash yelled. "They're back already?" "Ash, we don't know if it's them." "Actually," Tracey intervened. "Nurse Joy mentioned that a Meowth was with them. It's definitely them. She also said they would be here in twenty minutes."

"All right then, I've been corrected," the professor sighed, before he suddenly sat up straight and said: "Ash, let's prepare! We're going out to meet them before the Viridian Forest. I don't want more lives to be endangered." "What about me?" Tracey volunteered.

"You stay and ready the pokemon we are not taking with us to cover us if Team Rocket get past us. You're our last line of defense."

Tracey gulped. Professor Oak was thinking of a last line of defense? He was seriously considering the possibility he and Ash go down? Because if they would, would Team Rocket really spare them? But he dutifully nodded. Then he stepped up to Ash.

"I think we all know what that meant. If you really don't come back, I don't want to you to go while thinking I hate you. I'm sorry for getting so angry at you there."

Ash looked down in shame. "No, man, I was really immature there, and I treated you awfully. You were right. I shouldn't have been so rash and a lot of pokemon paid dearly for that."

Ash and Tracey stood there for a second, then started crying, first settling for a bro fist but then ending up in each other's arms and sobbing into each other's chest.

Only then did Ash realize he was probably not going to come back. But if he did go down, he was going to go down fighting for everyone he cared about and their safety: His pokemon, Tracey, Professor Oak, all his other friends… Mom! He remembered that he hadn't talked to her since running into Professor Oak's fields to try and stop Zekrom.

He wished he could see her one last time, but he knew he didn't have the time. Tracey gave Professor Oak one last hug, then Ash and Professor Oak turned and gathered the pokemon they needed. Ash brought his Totodile, Corphish, Buizel for the water type attacks, Torterra to possibly tank some attacks, Gible to use his newly learned Mud Shot and also possibly his Draco Meteor, and Gliscor for possible aerial battle as well as immunity to Electric Type attacks.

Professor Oak gathered up another six of his own, and added Rampage as a seventh, as he and Ash would ride the Dragonite and so he wouldn't need a poke ball.

Ash and the professor made sure to ask the pokemon if they would accompany the humans, full aware that a loss to team Rocket would most likely end up with the pokemon captured, as Team Rocket put them into cages and do horrible things to them.

As the professor's pokemon were his original team, and Ash's would not abandon Ash, they agreed to take the risk for their trainers. Then Ash and Professor Oak, with all the necessities for the preparation done, jumped onto Rampage's back. "One more showdown, Team Rocket," Ash whispered. "This time, you're going down and never hurting another pokemon again. I'll make sure of that." And with that, they flew off.

Tracey watched the trio fly off from Professor Oak's grass fields and sighed. Would he ever see them again? He then heard a yell and turned to see Ash's mother running towards him.

"Where… where is Ash? I've waited long enough! I know he has important work to do, and has to help Professor Oak with rebuilding his lab and taking care of the injured pokemon, but I couldn't wait to see my sweetheart!"

She panted, out of breath from the long sentence. "So where is he?" Tracey, still numb, pointed up towards the shape of the Dragonite flying away. Delia Ketchum was surprised. "Is that Ash? And Professor Oak? Flying away on the professor's Dragonite? What are they doing?"

"They're, they are…" Tracey stopped, licked his lips. "They're headed towards the Viridian Forest."

"Why?"

"To take on Zekrom again. He was headed towards here, but they are trying to prevent the catastrophe that happened here from repeating."

"You mean… this Zekrom is what caused this mess? The tress to be uprooted? The house to be destroyed?"

Tracey nodded.

"And you LET THEM GO?"

Tracey simply nodded again.

"How could you? He's my boy; he's Ash Ketchum, my whole world! Taking on that thing is like suicide, right? It caused all this destruction! **Couldn't it do that to Ash, too**?"

Tracey nodded a third time, unable to speak, his throat suddenly dry and he was unable to form any coherent words.

"How could you? He's all I have left!"

And with that, she charged at Tracey and punched him right in the gut. She punched him, again, in the chest, and kept on hitting him, over and over, wailing as she did this.

Tracey, meanwhile, numb to the pain, just repeated: "It's OK, it's alright, it's OK, don't worry." Yet he didn't sound convincing. How could anyone be convincing when not actually believing something? And how could Tracey believe that Professor Oak and Ash would survive an encounter with a legendary fine with killing them? He couldn't.

 _Author's note: Guys, first of all: I'm so sorry for the late update! School has been tough and I had to turn in a lot of assignments over the last two weeks. Still, don't expect me to update at any regular times. There will probably be random intervals. I hate that kind of updating from the fan fictions I read, and I hate doing it to you guys, too, but I don't think I can do it any better than that._

 _Also, I'm probably going to a note at the end of a chapter every single time for now on._

 _Second of all, I know, this was a messy chapter. So much happened, it was crazy, and I know it was probably hard to understand._

 _I wanted to revise it, but I also wanted to update and in the end I updated. It has anyways been a long while. But if you don't understand, just ask. I want this to be a readers-friendly fan fiction- what would be the point of writing this story without that?_

 _I definitely want the story and the plots to be understood. Also, I would really appreciate any sort of review, tip on what I could do better, recommendations, wishes for plot lines, characters, etc. (although I will probably still slightly change an idea anyhow, although the most of it will stay intact)._

 _For example, Isetba gave me a tip that separating the text would make it easier to read, which I happily accepted. I hope I did it as Isetba wanted it. So special mention to you, Isetba, and thank you a lot! I'm still a rookie on fanfictions, and this is my first fanfiction, so I would appreciate all the help I can get to improve._

 _Third of all, I really do not want to make deaths a normal thing in these series. I'm not going to completely exclude death, as I anyways already included one death last chapter, plenty more pokemon dying this chapter and the mentions of Ash and Professor Oak possibly dying. But still, I just wanted to note that these first few deaths here are the exception rather than the rule. This is still supposed to be rated T, after all._

 _Bye, guys. Till next chapter._

 _AshGreninjaXD_


	4. The Fight Against Zekrom

Ash and Professor Oak braced against the wind, scrunching their faces up against the howling wind breezing past them. Ash grabbed at his hat, making sure it didn't fly away. He glanced at it, looking at the Pokemon League symbol, flashing back to previous regional tournaments. How things had changed.

A couple of years ago he was losing in the last 16 of the Indigo League because of his previously disobedient Charizard and now was only eliminated by a trainer with legendary pokemon, using Darkrai and Latios. Yet even those legendary pokemon didn't even come close to Zekrom's power.

Darkrai and Latios were extremely powerful. Zekrom was even more powerful, being one of the two main legendary dragons in Unova, and could practically control the weather.

And even then, all six of Ash's pokemon were needed to take down the two legendary pokemon in the Sinnoh League. One of Ash's pokemon used to take down one of the legendary pokemon, Sceptile, was anyways lying in a Pokemon Center, recovering from a bad injury. This, of course, wasn't going to be easy.

But there wasn't time to think about that. Clouds were gathering up ahead from nowhere. The battle was here. They were about to battle Zekrom.

Jessie smiled as she flew next to James and Meowth on jet packs.

"You think the twerp took the bait?"

"Definitely," James replied.

"Hook line an' sinker," Meowth agreed. "Sure, it was maybe a little over the top to want to battle them if we only have to steal Professor Oak's data on Reshiram, but it was obvious good ol' professor would be warned if two people with Rs on their chests and a talking Meowth were heading here. Lure them away from the data, while we take that data! We can also finally beat that twerp at his own game!

"Last time we crushed their home. Now we crush them." Jessie smiled at the thought of that.

"And for once, it won't just be for the boss. For us as well…" James smirked.

Meowth copied him: "Yeah, beating down the twerp will be fun."

And with that, Zekrom's pokeball appeared in James' hand. And the pokemon was released.

Ash and Professor Oak saw the storm cloud long before the legendary pokemon. It was really hard to concentrate on Jessie and James hovering next to it, strapped to jet packs. Zekrom still looked incredible. The huge black dragon roared. And then it attacked.

This all felt surreal to Ash, but he snapped out of his temporary trance and held onto Rampage for dear life as the dragon swerved to avoid a stream of draconic energy came flying out of the dragon type legendary's mouth. After dodging the dragon Pulse, Rampage flew close to the ground, as they had all planned, and Ash, leaving Pikachu behind on Rampage, jumped off. As Rampage headed up to start the rematch against the Zekrom, though, Professor Oak realized that Jessie and James had disappeared. As he looked, he spotted them heading straight for Ash.

"Ash!" He yelled. "Look out!" Ash whipped his head around and dropped to the ground as James tried to tackle him. The Team Rocket member then circled back up to the sky and, together with Jessie, plunged for the boy again. The young boy from Pallet Town took a poke ball from his belt and released Torterra, one of his newer members after it had joined him in his Sinnoh journey. "Torterra, Energy Ball!" Ash cried as Torterra started charging a globe of green energy, then releasing it. Jessie and James, though, swerved out of the way of the ball and continued on. Ash gritted his teeth and ordered a Leaf Storm from Torterra. The two Team rocket members tried to swerve out of the way, but Jessie's jet pack was hit by enough leaves for it to start malfunctioning.

Hearing Ash command another Energy Ball, Jessie took off her jet pack and threw it at the oncoming attack in one fluid move. The explosion, though, caused James to veer horribly off course, where he smashed into a tree and fell down, unconscious. Jessie landed smoothly but grunted, frustrated, at her partner's misfortunes. She dodged another Energy Ball from Torterra and then sent out Dustox. "Dustox, Whirlwind!" Jessie shouted. Ash braced for the oncoming wind and held onto Torterra tight for stability. Dustox added in Psybeams that were powered up by the whirlwind's power and released at varying intervals to lower Torterra's stamina. As Torterra started to struggle, Ash, who was facing downwards to prevent the wind from getting into his eyes, reached for a poke ball to help his grass-and-ground type pokemon out. Yet all of a sudden the wind stopped.

Ash looked up, shocked, only for a pair of vines to snake around his throat from behind him and squeeze it tight. Ash tried to call out to Torterra, but he could only croak. Nevertheless, Torterra heard Ash and cried out in despair for his trainer as Carnivine wrapped his vines around the Continent pokemons' trainer. "Don't move,Torterra," James ordered, stepping out from behind a bush. "Or the twerp gets it." Suddenly, Ash understood what Team Rocket had been doing. James had only faked being unconscious, so that Ash would take his eyes off of James. Then, he had used his green pokemon Carnivine to blend in with the background. But in case that wasn't enough, Jessie had Dustox sent out and used it to distract Ash and Torterra from James and Carnivine. The Psybeams were not to wear Torterra down, they were making sure that Ash had enough problems dealing with Dustox that he could not focus on James no matter what. Ash gritted his teeth, Team Rocket had just been playing with him! They didn't even try and they already had him beat! Looking up to the sky (as much as he could with Carnivine holding him hostage, at least), he at least hoped that Rampage and the professor were doing better.

Yet he was shocked to find out that Rampage was plummeting towards the ground! Ash close his eyes and winced as the dragon landed hard, creating a crater and spraying dirt everywhere. "Professor!" Ash shouted, then realized he could now speak. Because the dirt had hit so suddenly, Carnivine had been unable to close his eyes in time after the dirt had sprayed everywhere, and the sand in his eyes had totally caught him off guard. The pokemon was still wrapped around Ash, but it had loosened a lot and Ash now had the space to talk. And with that the chance to free himself. He didn't waste it. "Torterra!" He shouted, hoping that his pokemon could still pull off the attack after the huge shock of Rampage falling down. "Use Rock Climb!" Instantly, rocks pushed up underneath Ash and Torterra's feet (paws? I don't know. What do you call Torterra's 'feet'?) while the sinnoh pokemon's claws grew long and the shocked Jessie and James could only watch as the two, with Carnivine still clinging on to Ash, rose up high above the Team Rocket members!

"Now, Torterra!" Ash shouted, suddenly twisting around so that Carnivine's hold slackened even more and it couldn't protect itself behind Ash anymore. Torterra's long claws cam eup, and for a split second Ash feared for his life. What if Torterra was just a fraction off? What if Torterra would accidentally crush his skull? But Ash then broke into a smile. Of course Torterra could. He never gives up, and he always comes through, like Ash always does! And sure enough, Torterra timed its' attack just right, smashing into the dizzy Carnivine and making it fly down towards Jessie and James. James, realizing that Carnivine had clearly been knocked out, returned his pokemon with a grunt.

Yet Ash couldn't celebrate. After returning Torterra, who was happy to have won but equally tired, he rimmediately remembered Rampage's dramatic crash to the ground. What happened to Professor Oak? Could he still be alive? But how could he survive that fall, even on Rampage's back? Ash ran over to the still motionless Rampage and looked on its' back. There was Pikachu! Ahs cradled the poor little unconscious mouse in his arms. But where was Professor Oak? Where did the professor go? Ash searched around Rampage, everywhere-anywhere- he could think of, but Professor Oak was nowhere to be found. Jessie and James watched this with a smile. As Zekrom slowly dropped down from the sky, landing next to the Team Rocket duo, James smirked and said "Why don't we finish this up, Zekrom?" Ash looked up from his panicked search and his face grew forlorn at the sight of Zekrom's tail lighting up. He then bowed his head in defeat as the light grew stronger and clutched Pikachu to his chest. He had lost.

 _Can it be? Yeah, it actually is. Another chapter from me! Yay! I finished the next chapter a year too late! Maybe half a year. But still, I'm so sorry! I just haven't been feeling writing this fanfic at all. I've always criticized people who started fanfics only to not finish them, but not I know where they come from. It's actually pretty exciting when it's new, but then the fun quickly wears off. At least, that's what it was like for me until I got into the zone and finished this chapter, writing like crazy after months of putting off writing this story. But about the actual story, I'm really considering making this a story for more mature readers. I'm planning to not make this incredibly bloody and all but I don't always shy away from violence and there will be more violence and mature content than in the actual pokemon anime. I'm just not experienced with rating stories. Any suggestions would be nice. But yeah, this chapter is about me messing around with introducing this epic battle between Ash and Team Rocket/ Professor Oak, Rampage and Zekrom and then I did it. And I'm happy with myself about the content. But I might have amazingly stupid mistakes in here and if you think so please tell me what they are in a positive, helpful way so that I can use them for my story. Thank you so much as always._


	5. The Fight Against Zekrom part 2

_A while ago..._

As Rampage headed up to start the rematch against the Zekrom, Professor Oak realized that Jessie and James had disappeared. As he looked, he spotted them heading straight for Ash. "Ash!" He yelled. "Look out!" Ash whipped his head around and dropped to the ground as James tried to tackle him. Professor Oak then felt Rampage twist suddenly, nearly knocking the elderly man off the dragon type's back, making him realize that he probably should focus on his own fight. After Rampage ducked under another Dragon Pulse, Professor Oak began to contemplate his options. What could he do?

He and Ash had worked out that they had to stop the electricity flowing out of Zekrom's tail. Sadly, they had been too shortsighted to consider Zekrom being able to fight on its own without Jessie or James controlling it. Therefore, with Ash and Professor Oak split up, their strategy of taking Zekrom down had completely fallen apart. Also, since Zekrom had managed to bring up a thunderstorm, it could produce unlimited electricity, so even if the professor managed to blow a bit of it away, more would immediately replace it. He needed to keep draining Zekrom's power and attack at the same time But how? Professor Oak had no idea. The professor gritted his teeth. So much for planning ahead. Their strategies had been neutralized as soon as the battle had started.

Yet… he didn't exactly need the tail to stop producing electricity, did he? If he could somehow get rid of that shield he would have a few moments to attack before Zekrom would manage to regenerate it! The professor smiled. So his strategy wasn't so bad after all. He plucked the poke ball that held his strategy from his belt and yelled, "Go, Jolteon!" He knew this was risky to do in the air, but he had to improvise. As the pokemon appeared out of the poke ball, it used its' momentum to hurtle straight into Zekrom.

The legendary pokemon was so surprised at the sudden appearance of Jolteon that it didn't even try to move. Jolteon flew straight into the electric shield, yet the shield started to dissipate as Jolteon's Volt Absorb started to take effect and suck the energy out of the shield. Jolteon managed to plow its' way through the remainder of the shield and cling onto Zekrom's leg. There it went on to launch Shadow Ball after Shadow Ball at it, trying to distract the pokemon from Rampage.

Yet it had a negative effect, as this shocked Zekrom into action, as it started to struggle and move around wildly, trying to shake the electric type eeveelution off its' leg. As Jolteon struggled to keep hold of its' grip on the leg and Zekrom trying to shake the pokemon off, Professor Oak realized that the electrical shield was growing weaker. While Jolteon could absorb all of the legendary pokemon's incredible electrical energy at once, the pokemon was succeeding in weakening the shield. It managed to plunge its' way through but that way through was quickly sealed up again.

Then they had to something different. Luckily, they had a plan for that, too. "Now, Pikachu!" cried Professor Oak. "You're up!" Pikachu suddenly zipped off of Rampage's back and towards Zekrom, it's tail glowing gray. And with a powerful Iron Tail, it hit the electrical shield and tore a small opening through the shield. That's all Rampage needed. With a roar, it fired a Dragun Pulse into that hole. Zekrom roared as a cloud of smoke erupted from the great blast.

Pikachu, though, was the first to emerge out of the smoke, falling helplessly towards the ground, obviously knocked out due to its limp body. Jolteon fell along with it, being KOed as well. Professor Oak returned Jolteon to its poke ball, yet he couldn't save Pikachu the same way. Rampage, though, knew what needed to be done. He sped towards the electric mouse, as Ash's most trusted companion kept on plummeting. Suddenly, though, Zekrom emerged from the cloud of smoke, unharmed; yet now it was obvious to see it was very furious.

Professor Oak tried to warn Rampage, who was so focused on saving Pikachu it hadn't noticed Zekrom yet, but the legendary pokemon from Unova was too fast. With a roar it blasted a Dragon Meteor from its mouth. And the meteors started to fall. By now, Professor Oak had managed to make Rampage learn of their problem and they swung around wildly to avoid the meteors, all the while still intent on catching Pikachu. Yet suddenly, one meteor came far too close for Rampage's liking and Rampage swerved, out of instinct. But it was too sudden.

Professor Oak let out a scream very much unlike him as he plummeted towards the ground. Rampage tried to follow the old man but a Draco Meteor slammed into him while the pseudo-legendary pokemon had let down its guard. Yet his desire to help out his master helped it stand tough. Yet when Rampage recovered, it couldn't see the professor anymore. Where was he? Yet then he could see a yellow blur fall through the trees near him. Rampage looked back to where Professor Oak had fallen, then back to Pikachu, who he could clearly see. Wincing and holding back tears, it then sped towards Pikachu.

The ground approached for Pikachu, as the unconscious yellow mouse pokemon fell limply through the air. Rampage went as fast as it could. It had just lost Professor Oak; it wouldn't lose the pikachu, too! He would do it for the professor! Just before Pikachu hit the ground Rampage caught it. Yet all of a sudden Dragonite was flooded by Zekrom's power again. What? It grunted, trying to stay aloft but it couldn't. With one last grunt, it smashed into the ground, stirring up a large cloud of dust. Rampage blinked in and out of consciousness. The last thing it remembered, hazily, was Ash standing over it and yelling out the professor's name. And then Rampage finally lost consciousness all together.

Ash was now terrified. What was he supposed to do? His best friend was defeated, his long time mentor and friend mysteriously gone, and their best pokemon of all had been easily taken down. Then he saw Zekrom landing beside him. Zekrom growled, then its tail lit up. Ashes clutched Pikachu close to his chest and closed his eyes in despair. This was it, then. Team Rocket had finally won. Yet all of a sudden, a sudden rush of wind came out of nowhere. Ash felt it fly past his face, ruffle his coat and nearly blow his hat away.

Suddenly he was moving. Flying even, lifting higher and higher. Ash slowly opened his eyes and let out a surprised and joyful gasp. He saw that a pokemon has saved him. Ash gaped at the sight of himself on a Pidgeot. The majestic bird cawed and swung around to face the legendary Zekrom. "Wow, thanks, Pidgeot! You saved our lives!"

"And mine too," a voice remarked behind Ash. Ash twirled around to see Professor Oak smiling a weary but happy smile at the raven-haired youngster. "Professor Oak!" Ash exclaimed, voice full of delight. The professor explained how he fell of Rampage's back but Pidgeot had managed to swoop into save Professor Oak before he would have hit the ground. Pidegot zipped up and down, moving quickly, easily avoiding Zekrom's attacks and managing to hit it now and then with a neatly timed and powerful Hurricane attack.

Even if the attack was not very effective, it clearly did have its effect on Zekroms' stamina, also managing to frustrate it even more and make its attacks more erratic. Ash was impressed by the Pidgeot and leaned back towards Professor Oak. "Wow, that Pidgeot is really strong!"

Professor Oak's eyes widened.

"Wait, Ash, you don't recognize it?

"Recognize it? What?"

"That was your Pidgeotto. It's now a Pidgeot!"

"Wait WHAT? That's my Pidegot?"

Ash yelled so loudly, that even over the lightning, heavy downpour and the roar of the attacks, Pidegot could hear him. All at once it twisted its neck around to face Ash the best it could and made the angriest sound possible, as the pokemon started screeching furiously. Ash couldn't believe it. Pidgeot. How had he forgotten about it? He thought back to when he had left Pidgeot here. They had just saved a flock of Pidgey and Pidgeotto from a nasty Fearow, and Pidgeot stayed behind to help them. Yet it was only going to be for a short time. "We'll be back as soon as we get Professor Oak's poke ball." That sentence swam through Ash's head, and his mind started to swim. And it finally sunk in that he hadn't come back.

No! Pidgeot! The second pokemon he had ever caught and one of his first pokemon buddies ever. He had forgotten about it! Made it wait here for years, yearning for Ash to come back and to rejoin him again. And Ash had let it down. What was supposed to be a week long trip to the orange Islands became months after he decided to take on the Orange Islands. To add insult to injury, he had walked the way back through this same forest. And he still hadn't remembered Pidgeot.

And then his other journies started. Years after years after years Pidgeot had been forced to wait, suffer as Ash broke his promise and never once tried to redeem himself. Ash felt like he was drowning in his emotions. He started feeling dizzy. How could he do this? He didn't realize he had been falling to the side before Professor Oak's hand clamped onto the young trainer's shoulder.

"Ash!" Professor Oak snapped. "What are you doing? Whatever you're doing, do that another time! Concentrate!" "Right!" Ash exclaimed, sitting upright. Yet this event had disturbed Pidgeot. Not only had Ash forgotten about it, he hadn't even recognized it! While it was brooding, it didn't realize it was slowing down until it looked back to Zekrom only to find a huge Dragon Pulse coming its' way. It sped up immediately, but the blast still nicked it in the feathers and with a cry of pain it fell to the ground, Ash and Co. along with it.

As they hit the ground hard, they grunted in pain, yet all stayed conscious. As they looked up, though, they say Team Rocket standing next to Zekrom. Zekrom narrowed its' eyes and roared in triumph, but then a pink blast came from nowhere and struck it from the side. And with enough power to send the legendary pokemon flying! As Ash, Jessie, James, Professor Oak and Pidgeot looked at the newcomers with awe, their jaws dropped open. Their savior was a Lugia.

The legendary pokemon readied another blast of its' Psychic attack at Zekrom, but Zekrom managed to get out of the way. Lugia landed, roaring a challenging cry. Then it roared and charged up its Fusion Bolt attack, moving in lightning speed at Lugia. It crashed into Lugia and sent it flying. Ash started to worry. That was a super effective attack! But when Lugia got up, it seemed just fine. The Fusion Bolt attack had barely left a scratch on Lugia. When Ash focused more, he was surprised to see a human atop of Lugia! Ash couldn't make out the person, but he was clearly the trainer of the Lugia.

The human atop of the Lugia yelled out an attack as Lugia charged up what seemed to be an Aeroblast and let it fly, hitting Zekrom, but barely doing anything. It was not very effective, after all. So why would Lugia use that attack? Ash contemplated this. Yet he couldn't figure it out. Yet Professor Oak realized what was going on. As the rain splattered down all around them, the ground was becoming muddier and muddier and the Aeroblast was flinging all the mud into the air- around Zekrom. The trainer was using Professor Oak and Ash's strategy to put an end Zekrom's electricity by stopping its tail, the generator! But the trainer seemed to have come up with it on the fly. Professor Oak gaped. 'That sort of quick thinking requires incredible talent. That's even better than anything I've seen Ash come up with. Just who is this trainer?'

As Professor Oak was awed by the strategy of the trainer atop of Lugia, Ash had something else on his mind. After seeing that James was using his jet pack to get to Zekrom, carrying Jessie with him and trying to help out Zekrom, Ash managed to pick himself up and staggered over to Pidgeot. The pokemon was lying on the ground, still in pain after taking the brunt of the fall in Professor Oak, Ash and Pikachu's stead. "Pideot!" Ash cried. "We have to stop Team Rocket!" The pokemon struggled to lift its head up and yet still managed to glare at Ash so fiercely if looks would kill Ash would have been split into millions of pieces. Ash stared with sad eyes at Pidgeot's angry expression and his betrayal rose to his mind again. But he knew that this was not important right now. They had to win.

"Pidgeot, come on!" Ash said quietly. "We have to keep on going. We have to keep on fighting. Or all we've ever fought for will be lost. If Team Rocket wins, who knows what they could do with Zekrom? They could even go to Pallet Town and destroy it! I know you hate me, Pidgeot! But please at least do it for all the people you could save right now." Pidgeot got onto its feet and stared deep into Ash's eyes. The pokemon could see the boy's suddenly quiet but still very bright determination to right the wrongs Team Rocket had committed. It saw the selflessness that made it bond so much with Ash in the first place. And it relented.

Pidgeot lowered its back to the ground in order to let Ash hop on. "All, right, Pidgeot!" Ash cried, running to give Pidgeot a hug. But the final evolved form of Pidgey let out a shrill cry before Ash came too close. Pidgeot's message was clear. Ash wasn't forgiven! Team Rocket just had to be stopped! Ash's smile faded slightly but he still tried to sound cheerful as he said "All right then." He then looked down at the sleeping Pikachu in his arms and realized that he couldn't really have hugged Pidgeot without dropping Pikachu. He chuckled a little in embarrassment. That would have been awkward… Just then, though, he realized that Pikachu's eyes were opening. As the electric mouse came to, Ash grinned happily. "Pikachu! You're awake!" Pidegot let out an impatient caw. "Oh, right! Team Rocket!"

Ash had totally forgotten about the two Team Rocket members for a while. He then jumped up onto pidgeot's back, waited until Pikachu followed, then they flew off towards the duo. Pidgeot used Quick Attack to catch up to Jessie and James almost immediately, who were surprised when Pidegot flashed past them. "Go, Dustox!" Jessie yelled as James tried to maneuver him and Jessie back to the ground so that the Team Rocket duo could release their ground-based pokemon. Using Dustox as a distraction to keep Pidgeot away, Jessie and James landed on the grass below while Ash, Pidgeot and Pikachu landed a few meters away.

All of sudden, a great rumbling could be felt as the earth shaked under the impact of Rampage landing next to them. Professor Oak, still looking terrible, was clinging into Rampage's back while Rampage had had been healed by the Pokemon professor and was ready to let out its rage at its defeat on the Team Rocket duo. Yet despite the odds being stacked against them, Team Rocket merely grinned. "What's so funny?" Ash yelled. "We're going to take you and Zekrom down, Jessie and James…" Ash trailed off as something occurred to him. Far too late. "Jessie and James?" Ash repeated. "But where's Meowth?" Jessie and James' grin only grew wider as Ash finally realized the truth. But where was Meowth?

Tracey and Delia sat down as Ash's mom finally recovered from her shock. She had run out of tears and couldn't be bothered to express her sadness anymore. She just sat there, staring out a window, too depressed to do anything. Tracey begged her to be able to help, to maybe get her some snacks, a drink… maybe tea? "I'll get it myself," Delia said. Tracey sputtered. "But-" As Tracey started to protest, Delia raised her hand and Tracey stopped talking, suddenly realizing that perhaps making tea would ease her mind off her worries.

As Delia shuffled into the kitchen, Tracey wondered how it was going out there for Ash. Would he and Professor oak really stand a chance against Zekrom? Tracey knew Professor Oak had a strong team; Tracey had begged to see it on the very first day he got here and Tracey still to this very day couldn't get enough of them. Especially Rampage. That Dragonite was one of a… all of a sudden his thoughts were interrupted as a scream went through the house and something crashed.

"Delia?" Tracey screamed, worried. As he raced into the kitchen, he was met with a horrifying sight: Team Rocket Meowth was standing on a table, holding his claws to Delia's throat. Meowth grinned as he saw Tracey race into the kitchen. "Hold it, twerp! Don't be an idiot and this woman **might** live to see her little boy again. So give up any heroics. Got it?" Tracey immediately recognized that he had no choice but to surrender. Meowth grinned even more as the boy wordlessly lowered his arms limply to his side. "Good boy," the evil pokemon said. "Now, could you tell me where a certain pokemon professor keeps his data on Reshiram?"

 _Another chapter done. A trainer with a Lugia arrives to save the day (you'll get to see much more of him in the next chapter) and Pidgeot comes back! It deserves this so much. But will it actually stay with Ash? It seems very upset with him. If everything goes according to plan, the next chapter will end the Zekrom and Team Rocket vs. Ash and Professor Oak and tie it all up before the chapter after that we'll finally start the adventure in Unova. And I do mean finally! Until next time, then._

 _P.S. And don't worry. I haven't forgotten Ash or Professor Oaks' pokemon they also brought along to this fight. They'll still appear._


End file.
